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Wednesday, June 25, 2008

I've been busy lately, but I wanted to update with a picture of my latest progress on my coat...

Yay second sleeve! It's going a lot faster than the first one. I know the stitches, so it's mostly a matter of looking to see what color I need to be on, and how many rows of single crochet I did in between the fancy stitches.

I wish I could finish this in time for the county fair, but entries are due on Monday and there really is no way I can get this done by then. Oh well.

I've finally returned to crocheting after a few days of break. Three days of nonstop crocheting sort of takes it all out of you. It was time for a break.

Now that I'm back, I have to actually face the issues with my sleeve I've discovered. Most important being the fact that, at the end of the pattern for the sleeve, I am 7 inches short of what I should have. This is more than a slight problem. It turns out that Cascade 220 wool is a lighter weight wool than Philosopher's Wool...ah well. The problem is easily solved by adding a few rows to the end of the pattern. So far, I have added a row of knurl, a section of diamonds, and two more rows of knurl. After this I'm planning on adding crossed doubles, then two rows of knurl, then if it still is not long enough I will add one or two rows of cables, ending with a row of knurl. That probably doesn't make any sense to those of you who haven't read the pattern. :P

I did buy two more balls of Cascade! A blue and a purple. I realized after buying the purple that I now have three purples in my seven balls...oh well. It still looks pretty. I like the added colors. It gives it a new feel to the top of the sleeve.

I'm hoping to finish the sleeve tomorrow (yes, I keep saying that. At some point I will actually finish the sleeve) and then start on...I bet you'll never guess...the second sleeve! I'm hoping this one goes faster, though I will have to look back at the first sleeve and figure out what the heck I was doing with the colors and in what rows. But I'll worry about that when I need to.

At Knitter's Connection, I got a new crochet book. You've probably heard of it - Stitch 'n Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker. It has some great patterns in it and I can't wait to start on them. It just is a matter of convincing myself to keep working on the Coat and not shove it in a drawer somewhere like a lot of projects. But that's why I'm doing this blog. So that someone out there will convince that yes, I do need to finish the coat, and no, I can't give up. :)

Friday, June 13, 2008

I know, it's strange to go to a knitting convention when you're a crocheter...and you have a blog called "not a knitter"...but my mom was going and it seemed like a fun experience. This is my second day here, and so far I'm having a blast! As soon as I got here, I sort of looked around at all the people sitting, knitting, and talking, and thought "These are my people!" My mom made a similar comment....guess it runs in our family!

Yesterday, I took a Crochet Shawls (an intermediate class) with Melissa Leapman, who has written several knit and crochet books. I absolutely loved it! I've been trying to find a good shawl pattern for a while...I've looked on ravelry, etc, but haven't really been satisfied with anything I find. Now I have several crochet shawl patterns, as well as a few edges. Yay! The class was a lot of fun because Melissa is actually a crocheter, but she makes her living writing mostly knitting books. It was very interesting to learn about that. I was also happy to discover that she wrote Cool Crochet, which is one of the few crochet books I own. My copy is now autographed! :D

Yesterday afternoon I didn't have a class, so I stayed in the convention center and sat around a table with a few other women and worked on my sleeve. It was neat to meet all these women from various places, mostly Indiana and Ohio, and to see what they are working on. A lot of people seem very interested in my sleeve. It certainly isn't boring! I've had so many people come up to me and ask what I'm working on, and when I tell them it's crocheted, they're just amazed! I guess everyone is under the impression that crocheting is only good for lacy things and baby blankets.

This evening, the market opened and we went to check it out. WOW. Senses overload! I've never been to an event quite like this. Fibers, fibers EVERYWHERE. I wanted to take everything home with me! I can't even quite describe all of it. The colors were stunning. I ended up getting a new spindle and some beautiful roving for my class tomorrow. (I didn't want to take off the spinning I've already been working on.) I also bought a new ball of Cascade 220 for my coat...yay! It is a blue heather, 9332. I'm excited to start working it into my sleeve.

The Coat Progress

Speaking of the sleeve...I consulted a few people on it, and they informed it me it was much too big for my arm. Sigh! So I pulled out almost the entire thing - the exciting bit, at least - last night. It was so sad! But I managed to almost get back to the same place by the time I went to bed, and now I'm much further.

To make it smaller, I pulled it out to the cuff, and then pulled out one row of the cuff. Now, instead of 73 stitches across, it's 59. It looks much better. I'm hoping to finish the sleeve tomorrow. Then I can start on the second one!

I'm pretty happy with it! I had a few problems with the crossed doubles stitch, but I think I have it worked out. Tell me if it looks wrong!

Ravelry

One of the really awesome things about this convention is that I get to meet so many people who are on Ravelry! So many people are on that site, and so many people are interested in joining. Everyone seems to use it for something different, which is wonderful.

This evening, the founders of the site and their new kid (Casey, Jess aka frecklegirl, and Mary Heather aka Rainydaygoods) all gave a presentation. It was very good, considering they had never done one before! It was so neat to meet them and hear their story. I love Ravelry and can't wait to see what's in for it in the future!

Well, I'm having issues typing, which is a sign that it's time for bed! I'll write more when I can, and post the pattern for the wrist warmers that I made, as well as the story that goes with them!

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

To start off, I should probably admit that I'm not using the Philosopher's Wool for this project. My LYS has a wonderful selection of Cascade 220 wool, so I've decided to use that. Here is the list of colors I will be using. In Cascade 220: 8885, 8267, 4148C, 7920, and 8393. In Cascade Heathers, I am using 9332, 9491, 9338, 9450, and 2431. Finally, in Cascade Lana D'oro I am using 1060. I plan on buying the yarn as I can afford it, and right now only have 5 balls of yarn. I am using a size F hook.

Progress

Last night I started on one of the sleeves. I never knew you could crochet left-to-right! The 'knurl' or 'corded reverse single crochet' is an interesting stitch worked backwards. It's hard to explain. My book, The Encyclopedia of Crochet by Donna Kooler, has a description of the stitch in the back..."Do not turn. Sc in last stitch of row 1, sc in 2nd to last st of row 1...." I found the description a little less than helpful. After twisting my hand awkwardly and stabbing the hook in various parts of the stitch, I finally managed something that looked right. Now after doing five rows of this 'knurl' stitch, I think I've managed to get it right. Well, it looks like the picture, at least.

The 'knurl' stitch seems to be used mostly for edging, but this pattern is using it as a decorative twisted bump. I'm doing it only in the front loop of the stitches, leaving the back loop open so I can stitch across the back and do another row of knurl on top.

I seem to be crocheting a little tight...my hand hurt after a few rows of the 'knurl' stitch. I guess I'm still getting used to the stitch.

I'm still excited for this pattern, though a little wary of the next stitch - a cable. I've never tried cabling before. Should be interesting!

I am a crocheter, a one hook, no needle girl. I'm a college student studying Creative Writing and love to spend all my free time (and not-so-free time) crocheting scarves, wrist warmers, and other little things for my friends and myself. I have an unhealthy obsession with scarves and am currently trying to figure out what to do with all 20 of them.

Lately, I've started dabbling in spinning, though I'm not very good at it and haven't actually made a full skein of yarn yet. I'm working on it, though!

I've been considering making a crocheting blog for a while now. I've seen a lot of people who have them and really enjoy reading their posts and seeing the creations they've made. My latest project, the Philosopher's Coat, made me decide that it was finally time to make that blog. I'm hoping to use this blog to talk about my experience (probably lots of frustration) as I make this crazy coat.

Just Me

"...And they all came, everyone whose heart was stirred...and brought the LORD's offering to be used for the tent of meeting....all the women whose hearts moved them to use their skill spun the goats' hair." [Exodus 35:21-26]